Former Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg practices during training camp in San Antonio, Tx. for his new team, the Memphis Express of the expansion Alliance of American Football.

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- By all outward appearances, Christian Hackenberg’s NFL career is in ruins.

Drafted in 2016’s second round, 51st overall, then dealt away after two seasons by the Jets. A look and a pass by the ultimate quarterback guru, Jon Gruden, in Oakland last spring. A few weeks of training camp with the Philadelphia Eagles in August. Then, an unceremonious release from the Cincinnati Bengals’ practice squad in November.

Three years removed from the early promise and rocky finish to Hackenberg’s Penn State career, it seemed as if football is through with the quarterback, once all-but destined for NFL glory.

The most damning statistic was no stat at all: Nearly 3 seasons and four teams, yet Hackenberg has registered precisely zero snaps in a regular season NFL game.

Already, Hackenberg is saddled with the dubious distinction of being the first quarterback in 35 years taken in the first or second rounds never to play in an actual NFL game during his first two seasons. The longer this goes, the more embarrassing the record becomes.

Indeed, in the eyes of pro football, it’s as if Christian Hackenberg never existed. He’s a statistical non-entity.

But can something be over that never really began?

For Hackenberg, the answer is a resounding, ‘no!’

“I don’t think this is it, not at all,” he said of his now-halted NFL career. “At some point, it’s time to hang them up for everyone. Where I’m at right now, I haven’t even thought about that. For me, it’s about playing football.”

Yet, Hackenberg finds himself far away from the NFL action.

It’s late January, the height of pro-football’s playoffs and championship, and Hackenberg is on a windswept high school field in San Antonio, Texas.

To hear him tell it, he’s on voluntary hiatus from the NFL.

The lowly Bengals cut him from their practice squad last fall. But Hackenberg says there were other deals for other NFL practice squads. Only he decided being an afterthought on some backbench in the NFL’s version of purgatory wasn’t a viable path to getting on the field in a real game, so he can finally re-write that ignominious non-stat of his.

To do that, Hackenberg and his close-knit team of advisers felt he had to come here.

He signed onto something called the Alliance of American Football, an upstart pro-league of eight teams playing a 10-week season that begins the weekend after Super Bowl LIII.

Former Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg practices during training camp in San Antonio, Tx. for his new team, the Memphis Express of the expansion Alliance of American Football.